edX Edge for On Campus Use

MOOC - CPE - Edx Diagram
Edge walkthrough
For small scale courses/blended environments
Support model
edX and the UBC integration Roadmap

LTI and integrations

EdX & the UBC Ecosystem

EdX is one tool within the overall LT Ecosystem at UBC available for UBC instructors to support their teaching. While the support model is currently being phased in, UBC are building out the infrastructure to support seamless integration of EdX with the overall ecosystem. Two key (related) elements have been a focus of development to support this integration. In collaboration with other EdX partners, UBC are developing connectors that support single sign and passing of enrolment data between Edge EdX and Connect, as well as developing a plugin that will support CWL authentication. In addition, leveraging the LTI standard, we are developing methods of integrating EdX Edge course content (component pieces of courses) within Connect courses and enabling grade syncing from EdX to Connect course grade centers.

Choosing edX or Connect

It is worth noting that edX is not a learning management system (LMS): it lacks some of the core functionality that LMSs have, so it is not intended to replace Connect. "edX is not intended to replace Connect. Certainly not in the near term and possibly not ever. Instead our intention is to add edX to an evolving ecosystem of learning technology platforms, tools and applications on campus." Excerpt from: UBC edX Partnership. At this point, edX lacks some core functionality required to be a complete LMS, although UBC and the other edX partner schools are actively working to improve the integration of edX with other UBC stools and the student information system. The edX and Edge environments will look very different in the future and now is an exciting time to experiment in that space.

Privacy and FIPPA

Due to restrictions in FIPPA legislations, UBC are not able to pass PII to cloud services off Canadian soil or to require students to consent to disclose this information within these applications. In order to support UBC authentication and enrolment integration in a way that is compliant with FIPPA, in the first instance, UBC are adopting the approach of linking to the Edge EdX environment from within Connect via the LTI tool. Due to some enhancements that UBC have made to the tool, user identity passed to Edge EdX via this approach can be obfuscated via tokenization. In practice, this will mean that users will need to login to Edge via Connect the first time (at least) . When they click on the link from within a respective course, a splash screen will notify them that they are leaving UBC servers and must manage their own privacy, before prompting them to establish their account on EdX that will subsequently be linked to their real identity in Connect (but not be traceable from Edge). They are free to use aliases for their details when setting up this account. Subsequent access to Edge via the link will be seamless without being prompted to log in. Alternatively student will be able to go directly to Edge and login using their account username and password they have set up on Edge without having to go to Connect.